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Liverpool’s Sound City Announces First Wave of Artists for 2019

The first wave of artists have been announced for Liverpool’s biggest and brightest music festival, Sound City, with Mabel and Loyle Carner topping the 2019 line-up.

Sound City 2019 takes place between May 3rd – 5th and has now (since last year) moved back to the city centre and away from the King’s Dock area that has been their home for several years prior.

This was a welcome move to fans of the festival, who feel it has been rejuvenated by its return to its city roots. It now takes place in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle area.

Two headliners have been announced for Sound City 2019. First up is Mabel, AKA London-based Mabel McVey. Mabel comes from thoroughbred musical stock, given that her mother is one Neneh Cherry and her father is none other than Massive Attack‘s producer, Cameron McVey.

Since she started her career back in 2015, the young producer has worked alongside some of the industry’s biggest contemporary names, including Harry Styles and Jax Jones. Her debut album is currently underway, by all accounts, and she has recently re-released her Ivy to Roses mixtape, to include tracks like Fine Line and Ring Ring.

Second on the headline list is Loyle Carner. The young hip-hop musician has been causing quite the stir since he first emerged back in 2012. Since then, Carner has amassed a serious following, undoubtedly reinforced by his 2017 debut album, Yesterday’s Gone.

Given that he has had multiple nominations for Mercury awards in 2017 and 2018, and won the NME‘s Best Solo Artist 2018accolade, we reckon that there is plenty to be excited about here. Plus, Carner is a self-confessed Liverpool fan, so his appearance should go down really nicely with the scouse fraternity (although the Everton fans might have the odd friendly jibe to throw at him).

The festival was bolstered by some fantastic news earlier in the year, as former COO, Rebecca Ayres, jumped up the ranks and is now the official MD for the Sound City brand.

Rebecca‘s familiarity with the brand, and with the wider music industry, suggests that only great things are to come for the festival, from this day forward. So, it comes as no surprise that the first wave of artists announced has generated a lot of excitement in Liverpool and beyond.

Speaking exclusively to NextFest about the 2019 edition of Sound City, MD Rebecca Ayres, had this to say: “We’re over the moon to announce Mabel and Loyle Carner for Sound City 2019, they’re two incredible new artists at the top of their game, and they have so much happening over the coming months that we can’t wait to talk about!

The rest of the line up with Magic Gang, SPQR, Molly Rainford and more is going to be spectacular too. As new MD for Sound City, I’m passionate about making the line up as diverse as possible and so are our excellent team.”

Tickets for the festival go on sale this Friday 26th October, so get yourselves ready because at £39.50 for a full weekend wristband, they’re going to fly off the shelves. You can grab yours here.